Spanx Are Basically Destroying Your Insides, Just Let It All Hang Out

Remember when ladies used to wear corsets and have their organs compressed so that their insides looked like those Russian stacking dolls and not like the game Operation!? Welp, spanx are basically the same thing just not made of metal and boning. Fun times! In our efforts to look slim and shapely we are going to make our uteruses pop out of our skulls—or something. The Huffington Post spoke to gastroenterologist Dr. John Kuemmerle, dermatologist Dr. Maryann Mikhail and chiropractor Dr. Karen Erickson to find out just how damaging spanx and shapewear is.

Your intestines, colon and stomach are being compressed.

“Your digestive tract is also affected, explains Dr. Erickson. The intestines are supposed to contract and move food along, but when they’re compressed over a long period of time, the flow of digestion is stifled.”

It will make you go pee pee.

“‘You’ve got all of this pressure on your bladder from the shapewear pressing down,’ Dr. Erickson says. ‘If you postpone urinating, it can cause stress incontinence, where you leak, or it can exaggerate stress incontinence with people who already have it.'”

Your legs will go numb, tingle and experience pain.

“‘It’s like putting these giant rubber bands around your upper thighs and tightening them when you sit,’ Dr. Erickson says. (She’s also seen this condition in those who wear too-tight pantyhose and pants.) This rubber band effect can also decrease your circulation and lead to blood clots.”

You’ll become susceptible to infections.

“Shapewear is occlusive, meaning it traps moisture and anything else under it, which predisposes shapewear wearers to both yeast and bacterial infections. Dr. Mikhail says that the most common infection she sees is folliculitis, since bacteria often gets trapped among hair follicles and causes red puss-filled bumps.”

All of this sounds painful and yucky. The doctors emphasize using shapewear in moderation as in not everyday but for special occasions. There’s no reason to needlessly suck your body into a sausage skin on most days. Have you ever experienced any of this while wearing spanx?